Perth family forced to move into a tent as Australia’s housing crisis worsens
A mother and her four children have been forced to live in a tent after losing their entire home to a fire during Australia’s worsening housing crisis.
Kristine Meakins and her four children, aged two, five, eight and 15, have been living in a tent at a caravan park in Perth’s south for the past two weeks.
Her rental house in Rockingham had burned down in January, leaving the Meakins family with nothing left.
They have been placed on the social housing priority list and Ms Meakins said she has submitted 50 applications for rental properties, all to no avail.
‘This is not livable. You’re not supposed to live this way,β she told the newspaper ABC between the tears.
Kristine Meakins and her four children, aged two, five, eight and 15, have been living in a tent at a caravan park in Perth’s south for the past two weeks.
After their house burned down, Ms. Meakins bought camping gear, mattresses and a stove, but said the first campsite they went to kicked them out after three days.
The family has since moved from several caravan parks, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a place to sleep.
βI just felt angry, very angry, because not everyone’s house burns down and everyone doesn’t have to watch everything you’ve collected in your entire life being destroyed right in front of you,β Ms. Meakins said.
“I just feel like I’m hitting a brick wall every time, and then we come back here and go to sleep and do it all again the next day.”
The mother desperately tries to make life as normal as possible for her children, with children’s toys and coloring books in the tent.
She said she went to every open day and submitted applications on time, trying to make a good impression.
βAnd I’ve been rejected every time and it’s depressing because you don’t even want to put in the effort, but if you don’t put in the effort you don’t have a chance at all,β Ms. Meakins said.
Tragically, she is not alone, with caravan parks eroding capacity in the city as the housing crisis escalates.
The family has since moved from several caravan parks, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a place to sleep.
Visitors are also allowed to stay in caravan parks for a maximum of two weeks, so the Meakins family will soon have to look for alternative accommodation.
The rental property vacancy rate in the Perth metro area is below 1 per cent, the lowest in Australia.
It is estimated that just under 200,000 people need housing.
WA Housing and Planning Minister John Carey gave a bleak view of the future.
He said he hoped Ms Meakins and her family would get housing, saying relief was on the horizon, but not soon enough.
βIt won’t be next year because our market, like every market in Australia, is facing the same restrictions and pressures,β he told the publication.
Western Australia’s population is also growing, and construction workforce shortages, the Covid pandemic and the rise in material costs have only added to the pain.